Roasted Ratatouille Pasta

{Meatless Monday}

I am FINALLY back with a new recipe.  It has been many months now where my focus had been on other projects and not on cooking. I have been quilting, painting, and paneling my fireplace wall. Meanwhile, we have enjoyed our old standby recipes for many weeks... but I finally went looking in my basket of Everyday Food magazines and found this one that looked like it was worth a try.

The recipe is for GRILLED vegetables, but since we don't own a grill, I just roasted/broiled them in my oven.  My husband and I both agreed that the only thing missing was mushrooms--we both love mushrooms.  The eggplant was the only vegetable that didn't stand out to me.  Next time I make this, I may just replace the eggplant with mushrooms and see how we like it.

This was one of those meals that nearly caused mutiny at the dinner table with the little ones!  They are allowed to pick out one thing that they don't want to eat.  But when there are FIVE vegetables on their plate, they tend to get upset.  ; )

But we all survived and they got to try a few bites of things they did not especially want to eat.  It's good for them and someday (maybe?) they'll thank me.

Here's what you'll need...

10-12 oz. curly pasta, such as cavatappi   (I used Whole Wheat Rigatoni)
1 medium zucchini, cut into spears
1 bell pepper, halved and seeded
1 red onion, halved
1 small eggplant, cut into thick slices
4 large tomatoes, cut into thick slices
3-4 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley

In a medium pot of salted water, cook pasta according to instructions.

Reserve one cup pasta water.   Drain pasta and return to pot.

You can grill vegetables, brushing them with Olive Oil and seasoning with salt.

Here's what I did:  Heat oven to 375.  Place vegetables on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Salt and pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes.  Then turn oven to broil for 5-8 more minutes until vegetables have browned nicely.

Transfer to cutting board and let cool before roughly chopping all vegetables.

I LOVE this picture...it just looks healthy for you and so, so delicious!

Add to pasta, along with 2 T olive oil and balsamic vinegar, to taste.  Use 1/2 cup to 1 cup pasta water to create a light sauce that coats pasta.

The pasta and veggies were still so warm they were steaming up the camera!

 Season with salt, peeper and fresh parsley.  Serve warm.  I topped each bowl with some grated parmesan cheese.